Live review: Belphegor, Vreid
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"Los Angeles, are you ready for the devillll?"
I laugh. But not at Helmuth. Belphegor's vocalist/guitarist is dead serious. All the stage lights are red. It's dark, and it's hot. Others are smiling, too. Eyes glint. It's time for revenge. Payback for the hours burned to get to this point. James Brown saw red and made it a party: "That's it! Payback! Revenge!"
Backtrack a few long, long hours. Some opening bands not worth mentioning. A bill almost not worth mentioning. "Heathenfest," a collection of bands bent on shoehorning Trinklieder into metal. It's hours of polkas and bad costumes: a Finnish singer as a German beer girl, a crowdsurfer in a bear costume, keytar-wielding pirates. People wear eye patches and host beer steins. It's a fustercluck of nationalism. See Casablanca:
Major Strasser: What is your nationality?
Rick: I'm a drunkard.
Captain Renault: That makes Rick a citizen of the world.
Vreid kill the buzz in a big way. Who knows how they got on the bill, but if Norwegians killing Nazis is "heathen," so be it. They are frustrated at first. Their amps sound like transistor radios, thanks to clueless soundmen. Vocals take some time to emerge. Eventually, the sound falls into place. Unlike what came before, it has national backbone. Songs hiss forth about the Norwegian WWII resistance, and staying true to it. It's not hard to hear them as being true to metal. Fists rise and sweat drips.
Belphegor offer the night's other succor. They have the best timing I've ever heard from a band. It takes them just a few minutes to set up. The room turns red, and they're off. They are as if shot from cannons. Riffs and blastbeats rain down hard and fast. Every so often, Helmuth picks out a solo. He's economical. His fingers move twice, and four notes ensue. He hands a bottle of (hopefully) fake blood into the crowd. Of course, it goes airborne; some of it splashes on me. Horns fly, cameras snap, and it's go, go, go. Between songs, Helmuth makes sure that we're ready for metal, the devil, and so on. His English isn't great, so he keeps things brief. This is a hurry-up offense, and we're in the red zone. It's over too soon. Sluicing for gold in hours of silt: at least tonight paid off.
Belphegor - The Crosses Made of Bone
Labels: austria, black metal, clee, death metal, features, live, norway
5 Comments:
Spot on.
wow man from what I've read from you I would think you would not be into them. I saw belphegor open for Exodus and Kreator over the summer or whenever that was. they were a fucking joke. I know you hate inconsistent drummers and this guy dropped more beats than I've ever seen. the singers voice was cracking trying to maintain his "metal voice" in between songs. Warbringer played first with a drummer borrowed from a a tour mates band who learned the songs in the van because WB's drummer broke an arm (who sucked and I forgot their name) and they still mopped floor with Belphegor. it seemed like Belphegor had no place on that tour. I was for sure laughing at them.
i can believe that a band that has 30 dates in a month and a half would have to see a bad show or two. But I saw Belphegor on the same tour as this penis above me, and they fucking ruled shit. those dudes nailed it. and so did warbringer. exodus was fucked due to a bigoted frontman, and kreator was amazing.
Anon - With Belphegor, it's like Spinal Tap for drummers, so maybe I didn't see the same drummer you did. Every band has on and off days, and I caught Belphegor on an on day. I had seen them once before, and they were underwhelming, so this gig was a pleasant surprise.
eh mon - I'm curious how Exodus' frontman was "bigoted."
Belphegor confuse me. I want to like them, but something's missing that I can't put my finger on. I saw them in San Antonio at Heathenfest last week and found them entertaining for the following reasons: their song titles are hilarious, and Helmuth's banter between songs woke the crowd up from their Monday night stupor. This spurred a debate between my friends and I as to whether they were serious or not. I hope they are, since it becomes exponentially funnier, if so. Their songs, while played tightly, started to blend together after a while. Still, I can appreciate that they played like we were a crowd of 3,000 instead of 30(I'm not joking, it was a sad turnout).
Vreid was great. That is band I want to look into a little more. As for the other bands, well, let's just say that the market for folk metal seems to have become oversaturated very quickly. And in San Antonio, Texas, where lovers of Slayer and Cannibal Corpse abound seemingly more than anything else, the people didn't look convinced. That said, I hope Eluveitie, at least, come back again.
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